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Massive flooding in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe

UNICEF bringing relief for children and families affected by Cyclone Idai and Cyclone Kenneth.

UNICEF/UN0308581/De Wet

Cyclone Idai left families in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe facing devastation, and hundreds of thousands of children across the three countries in need of urgent assistance. Six weeks later, Cyclone Kenneth made landfall in Mozambique, bringing powerful winds and heavy rain. Many children have lost their homes, schools, friends and loved ones. Since Idai hit, UNICEF has been moving quickly to respond, providing critical emergency supplies and support to camps and communities to assist those displaced by flooding.

Two girls run through flood waters in the Shibaburi area of Pemba, Mozambique, after Cyclone Kenneth dumped heavy rain on the area.

What’s happening?

On 14 March, tropical Cyclone Idai made landfall at the port of Beira, Mozambique, before moving across the region. Millions of people in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe have been affected by what is the worst natural disaster to hit southern Africa in at least two decades.

Six weeks later, Cyclone Kenneth made landfall in northern Mozambique – the first time in recorded history two strong tropical cyclones have hit the country in the same season. Devastation caused by the cyclones left around 1.85 million people in Mozambique alone in urgent need of humanitarian assistance – in healthcare, nutrition, protection, education, water and sanitation.

What is UNICEF doing?

Getting medical supplies to displaced families

Any prolonged interruption in access to essential services could lead to disease outbreaks and spikes in malnutrition, to which children are especially vulnerable. In Mozambique, UNICEF has provided vaccines to successfully immunize 900,000 people against cholera. UNICEF and its partners are also ramping up efforts to prevent the transmission of malaria. Meanwhile, by 16 May, more than 700,000 children had been vaccinated against Polio, more than 650,000 children against Measles and Rubella, and nearly 700,000 children were screened for malnutrition and acute case referred for life-saving treatment.

In Zimbabwe, UNICEF has provided more than 60,000 people with critical information to prevent waterborne diseases. It also launched a cholera vaccination campaign in partnership with Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health and Child Care and WHO, to protect over 480,000 people. In Malawi, UNICEF-supported mobile clinics have provided healthcare to more than 30,000 people.

UNICEF/UN0298610/Oatway

The vaccine for cholera is prepared at an accommodation in Mozambique for people displaced by Cyclone Idai.

Providing access to safe water, sanitation and basic services

Without safe and effective water, sanitation and hygiene services, children are at high risk of preventable diseases including diarrhoea, typhoid and cholera, and also increasingly vulnerable to malnutrition. Since the cyclone hit Malawi, UNICEF has provided safe water to more than 61,000 people and sanitation facilities to over 53,000 people.

More and more communities are returning to their devastated homes or are being resettled to safer areas where basic infrastructure and services need to be built from scratch. Many families have lost everything.

UNICEF/UN0297932/Oatway

Water starts flowing from a pump at an accommodation centre in Mozambique for people displaced by Cyclone Idai.

Ensuring access to education

Many schools and hospitals have been destroyed or damaged or are being used for shelter. Any prolonged interruption in access to learning could have devastating consequences for children over both the short and long term.

Education is essential for helping children return to a sense of normalcy following a traumatic event, like a major cyclone, and for their long-term development and prospects. UNICEF and partners have therefore been distributing educations packs to children affected by the flooding. UNICEF is also working on scaling-up psychosocial support to affected children and reunifying unaccompanied and separated children.

UNICEF/UN0299183/Oatway

A child receives her education pack at a primary school in Beira, Mozambique.

Lives swept away

UNICEF/UN0303165/Mukwazhi/UNICEF

CHIMANIMANI, Zimbabwe – Prudence remembers the last time she saw her brother Proud. If it wasn’t for him she wouldn’t be here to talk about the devastating floodwaters that swept into her district of Chimanimani, near Zimbabwe’s eastern border with Mozambique, in March. But Proud lost his own life saving his sister’s.

“He lifted me up, until I found something to hold on to,” she says, her voice faltering. “But he got swept away.”

Prudence, 5, lost three siblings and a cousin that day. Just over a month later, she’s visiting a UNICEF-supported child friendly space near her old home. She generally stays close to the tent, sitting alone with a pensive look on her face. But from time to time she can be seen tagging along behind the social workers at the space.

NSANJE, Malawi – “The water came in the middle of the night, Martha says. “I woke up to find water filling up the house. I was so scared, I thought we were going to die.”

“We could see dry land far out on the Malawian side, but on the Mozambique side the water stretched as far as we could see. So we decided to go to Malawi.” Unfortunately, the family did not have enough money for all three people. Martha’s husband, Timothy, made the courageous decision to send his wife and child to safety and stay behind himself.

“I haven’t seen or heard from him since,” Martha says. “I wish we were together now.”

GONDOLA, Mozambique – “First it was the wind blowing hard. Then came the heavy rain,” says Angelina Paulo, a single mother of seven children. “All of a sudden, the roof came down over our heads.”

“We managed to get out alive and we ran to a neighbor’s house where we stayed until the storm passed. We went to find shelter in the nearby school before we were moved to this warehouse,” she says. “I’ve lost everything, my house and my crops.”

Angelina’s story is a familiar one among the families who have taken shelter in the Cafumpe accommodation in the district of Gondola, in the central province of Manica.

A mobile health team has been providing primary health care to those affected by the floods, especially women and children. Angelina says that her three-year-old son, António, had a fever and was diagnosed as suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) and malaria.

How you can help

Right now, families in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe are facing devastation brought by Cyclone Idai and Cyclone Kenneth. UNICEF is moving quickly to respond to the impact of the cyclones. Children and their families need safe drinking water, health supplies and emergency shelter.